millbank Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 Ralph Wilson "Revenue sharing was supposed to be taken care of under Tagliabue's watch and he shoved it off. Nothing's been done on it," Wilson said. "He passed it off to a consulting firm. The qualifier committee never recommended that, Tagliabue did, and now he's leaving. The league has to step up and face that." After political pressure was exerted on the league last spring at the behest of Wilson, Tagliabue appointed an eight-team committee to hammer out the details on how the league's 32 teams together would pay for a contract that handed 5 percent more of total league revenues to the players. But proposals that were devised by the "Committee on Qualifiers" were tabled by owners at their May meeting and the committee — a mix of small- and large-market teams — hasn't met since. Instead, the league has contracted with an outside financial services firm, McKinsey & Co., to study revenue sharing as it applies to the NFL. McKinsey developed the NBA's revenue-sharing system. "What's going on now is McKinsey is pulling together all the analytical (material), doing all the background data, and benchmarking each of the teams in their markets," said Bills treasurer Jeffrey C. Littmann, who occupies the team's seat on the committee. Goodell joined the NFL in 1982 as an intern and rose to become Taglibue's top aide as chief operating officer. Behind the scenes, he has helped the Bills develop a better business plan, including moving training camp to Rochester in 2000. "He has a lot of experience and fortunately he's from western New York," Wilson said. "I think he's going to be a very good commissioner if he'll step up and face the challenges and we have a lot of challenges under this new collective bargaining agreement. It's a very bad agreement for the teams. Most of the clubs in the league are recognizing it now. A lot won't speak out except me, and a few others, but we talk and a lot realize how bad it is and they're going to see over the next two years."
Orton's Arm Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 I'm not a fan of the agreement that got hammered out, on many levels. It gave more money to players, which is a bad thing. They're overpaid enough already. I would have supported an increase in the minimum salary, but not in the overall percentage of revenues that go to players. This would have forced teams to give a larger share of their payrolls to the minimum wage guys. The other thing I didn't like about the new agreement was its failure to adequately address the growing revenue disparities between big market teams and small market teams. The more local revenue a team like Dallas generates, the higher the salary cap becomes, and the harder it becomes for a small market team like the Bills to stay competitive and financially viable.
Rubes Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 Big deal. Ralph is old and senile. And did I mention how old he is?
kgun Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 With Ralph all up in arms with the league, I don't see him inking any deals with our playmakers. Clements; Fletch & Willis will want a new deal and big$$$
MadBuffaloDisease Posted September 6, 2006 Posted September 6, 2006 Clements is likely a goner anyway. Fletcher is getting up there in years and will be a tough decision. Willis, who knows? But we'll get a better idea in a few months about the state of revenue sharing and whether Ralph will be able to compete or not. Hopefully Goddell picks up Tagliaboob's fumble.
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